Industrial structures can have grating systems mounted thereon to provide platforms positioned at various elevations, and stair structures to provide access between the platforms. Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art grating G is shown, that can comprise a plurality of parallel spaced-apart load bar members L welded or otherwise attached or affixed to a plurality of parallel spaced-apart cross-bar members C, wherein cross-bar members C are orthogonal to load bar members L. Adjacent load bar members L can be spaced apart by distance A, and adjacent cross-bar members C can be spaced apart by distance B, where A can be 24 mm and B can be 94 mm, although other distances for A and B can be used, as well known to those skilled in the art.
When working on structures having grating platforms and the like, it is often required to run rigging ropes through the grating to support or suspend personnel, materials or both. In so doing, the rigging ropes will contact and rub against the load bar members and cross-bar members that make up the grating. This gives rise to the possibility that the grating members can cut or fray the rigging ropes and, thus, cause the rigging rope to break or fail resulting in the personnel falling or becoming injured.
The unwritten or unofficial industry standard for rope protection, in many cases, has been, first, a “make-shift” type protective enclosure created from that whatever is available on the work site to reduce the impact of the “hard edge” of the grating to the rope(s). The second is having to double or even triple-up the fabric type rope protectors around the rope that is stuffed into an area or opening in the grating, as an example. This results in a “what if” factor as to whether the piece of rope protection last stay in place for the entire time the personnel is working suspended from the rigging rope.
To counter this problem, it is known to use an insert device for use on the grating where the rope is passed through the device to prevent the cutting or fraying of the rope. Such known insert devices used for guiding rope through grating systems are, typically, limited to a single rope, are made of metal and are relatively heavy to carry by personnel in setting up a rigging rope through grating, can require tools to install on grating and are relatively expensive.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a grating insert for rigging rope that overcomes the shortcomings of the known devices used for this purpose.